Well, I was planning on posting a review of my Apple watch, but sadly, I have some bad news to share. Today we lost our first chicken, Stretch. I’m not sure exactly what got her, but something made it into the orchard and killed her. I’m sad because she was one of my favorites from the start – named Stretch because as a chick she was always craning her neck to check out her surroundings and loved to be held.
I went to put the chickens to bed this evening and noticed Bruce (the rooster) was sitting in the doorway of the hen house making a lot of noise – he wouldn’t let the rest of the girls out.
I decided to bury her – even with pets it just seems like the right thing to do. Our ground is ridiculously hard right now, but it felt good to take out some of the sad on the dirt. She’s in a nice little spot near some rosemary.
Over the past few years I’ve thought off and on about getting chickens. We live on a little over five acres and with the exception of the land right around the house, we let most of the property remain natural. We’ve got a good chunk fenced off for Shadow and another chunk fenced for my orchard. Every spring I’ve seen the sweet little chicks at the feed stores, but haven’t quite been ready to take the step. My sister went on Thursday to get some of her own… and it finally spurred me to get some of my own!
I ended up getting a variety of breeds and colors… some of them look very similar as chicks, but will look very different as adult hens. None of them will be meat birds… we’re just looking for eggs.
Rhode Island Red: an American breed of chicken known for it’s egg laying and hardiness.
Rhode Island Red
Barred Rock: (also known as Plymouth Rock) a breed of chicken that originated in the United States and is a cold hardy bird. They lay a light brown egg that can have a hint of pink. I got two of these ones.
Barred Rock Chicken
Gold Sex Link: a breed of chicken whose color at hatching is differentiated by sex, which makes it very easy to tell a hen from a rooster.
Gold Sex Link Chicken
Brown Cuckoo Maran: a breed of chicken that originates from a western region of France, known for their dark brown eggs (and fine meat quality).
Brown Cuckoo Maran
Welsummer: a Dutch chicken breed from the small villiage of Welsum, known for being friendly and intelligent.
Welsummer Chicken
Feather Legged Cuckoo Maran: similar breed to the brown cuckoo maran, only these guys have feathers down their legs.
Feather Legged Cuckoo Maran
Red Sex Link: a redder version of the gold sex link (see above)
Red Sex Link Chicken
Dominique: considered America’s oldest chicken breed, known for their meat and brown eggs
Dominique Chicken
My little chicks look nothing like the pictures above. You have to use a red heat lamp because chickens are naturally cannibalistic and if for some reason one of them has any blood on it, they’ll peck it to death. The red light helps to hide anything that might trigger peckfest. That said, my garage looks like the red light district… and we have windows, so it shines outside.
The Red Light District
Here are the ladies (well, hopefully all ladies) without the red glow. They were a little agitated because they had been taking a nap and I woke them up.
Meet The Ladies!
I decided that I am going to build my own coop… I have about a month before they are ready to leave their box and I have picked out a section of the orchard (that way we have double fencing) that I think would be perfect. I want to build a functional coop with a HUGE run. I can’t wait!!!
Down The Road I Go 